DI MARIO RIDES APRILIA RS 660 TO SECOND CONSECUTIVE DOUBLE PODIUM WEEKEND IN
MOTOAMERICA TWINS CUP RACES AT BRAINERD INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
RODIO RACING – POWERED BY ROBEM ENGINEERING RIDER READY TO VIE FOR TWINS CUP
TITLE AT SEASON FINALE AT CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS IN SEPTEMBER
BRAINERD, MN — 17 JUNE 2024 — MotoAmerica Twins Cup rookie Alessandro Di Mario is proving to
be a model of consistency in MotoAmerica’s Twins Cup. The rider from Kentucky piloted his Rodio
Racing – Powered by Robem Engineering Aprilia RS 660 to his second double-podium weekend in
the past two rounds on Saturday and Sunday at Brainerd International Raceway. Though he came
close to clinching his second victory of his rookie Twins Cup campaign on Sunday, Di Mario is one of
just two riders in contention for the 2024 MotoAmerica Twins Cup title.
Both Rodio Racing – Powered by Robem Engineering riders were near the top of the time sheet Twins
Cup Friday practice, with Gus Rodio and his teammate Di Mario were third and fourth, respectively.
EasyHealthPlans.com/TopPro Racing Team’s Avery Dreher missed out on the top five by less than a
tenth of a second. The trio of Aprilia riders performed even better in Friday’s Qualifying 1, as Rodio
provisionally qualified second, Di Mario third, and Dreher in fifth.
In Saturday’s Qualifying 2, Di Mario ended up the fastest of the Aprilia riders. He qualified second,
and his teammate Rodio qualified third to give Aprilia two of the three front row grid positions. Dreher
made it three Aprilia riders in the top five by qualifying fifth for the weekend’s two Twins Cup races.
During Race 1, Di Mario found himself in what turned out to be a race-long battle for second place.
Rodio followed in a mostly lonely fourth place throughout the 11-lap race, while Dreher fought
throughout for the fifth position. Though Di Mario finished the first three laps in third place, he made the
move to second place on Lap 4 and held off a late-race challenge for the runner-up spot to secure his
sixth podium appearance of the season by a mere 0.036 seconds. Dreher came out on top in the battle
for fifth place – his fifth top-five finish this year. Team JBR’s Josef Bittner finished ninth.
Sunday’s Race 2 had an action-packed opening lap, as Di Mario made a move for the lead early in the
first lap, but a few corners later was bumped by another rider and fell back to fifth place. Dreher took
advantage of Di Mario’s bad luck moving to third place in the running order. Unfortunately for Dreher, a
technical problem ended his race on Lap 2. Rodio ran another lonely fourth place Sunday, while Di
Mario quickly worked his way back to the front and led the end of Laps 7-10 of the 11-lap race. A pass
by another frontrunning rider early in the final lap ended Di Mario’s chance at victory, but he held off a
challenge from another rider to claim his second runner-up finish of the weekend and score his fifth
consecutive podium appearance.
Of the 26 riders registered to compete in MotoAmerica Twins Cup at Brainerd International Raceway,
11 were slated to race Aprilia RS 660s. The last Twins Cup round of the 2024 MotoAmerica season
takes place Sept. 13-15 at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
Alessandro Di Mario / Rodio Racing – Powered by Robem Engineering
“I didn’t really expect to be this fast this weekend since this is not one of my favorite tracks. My tires
were really bad by the end of Saturday’s race, so by the last lap I just tried blocking every passing
opportunity and was able to hold onto second by just a small margin. Today’s race was good. Our pace
in this race was absolutely insane, but I wasn’t able to win the race by just a little bit. I can’t wait for the
next round at Circuit of the Americas and want to thank the team and everybody that’s help me out this
weekend.”
